The invention relates to molded products made from preforms of tubular braids, e.g., tennis rackets made from commingled carbon and thermoplastic yarns.
Tennis racket frames have been made by braiding a tubular braid of carbon reinforcing filaments impregnated with thermoset resin, inserting a bladder within the tubular braid, loading the tubular braid and bladder in a mold, and heating the mold while the internal bladder is inflated to cause curing of the resin around the reinforcing fibers. After molding the bladder is removed.
Davis U.S. Pat. No. 5,176,868 describes using the same procedure to make tennis racquet frames from a tubular braid of a yarn of commingled continuous carbon fibers and thermoplastic fibers, a type of yarn described in McMahon et al. U.S. Pat. No. 4,871,491 and Stuart U.S. Pat. No. 5,000,807.